


Hide and Seek

by notjustmom



Series: Box of 64 [54]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, M/M, Parentlock
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-28
Updated: 2018-08-28
Packaged: 2019-07-03 21:44:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,167
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15827529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notjustmom/pseuds/notjustmom
Summary: Sherlock and Rosie's first time playing 'hide and seek'





	Hide and Seek

Sherlock was running out of ideas. 

Even Rosie was getting bored, which never happened when it was just the two of them, and worst of all, he had an audience of five of the most popular girls in the playgroup. He was still trying to recall how it was that he had ended up being the caretaker for this, well, to be honest, horde. He paused as they all stared up at them as they sipped their tea, which was actually juice, and considered. Ah. Yes. John had been the one to volunteer them, THEM, and their flat for this last get together before school began. But of course, Harry had called, and John was needed elsewhere, and he had forgotten, they had both forgotten, but luckily Rosie had not.

"Da! Wake up, the girls will be here in an hour!"

"Girls. What girls?"

Rosie ticked them off on her fingers. "Delilah, Grace, Julia, Evie and Celia."

"The play date." Sherlock groaned and looked up and Rosie's beaming face. She was already dressed in her favourite outfit and waiting patiently for him to get off the couch. He never slept well when John was out of town, and he had fallen asleep watching a documentary about something, he couldn't recall what it was exactly... something about poisons, or tea leaves possibly. He shook himself to full consciousness, rose carefully from the couch, took a quick shower, and dressed as informally as possible. He wore the t shirt Lestrade had given him as a prank last Christmas, it had something called a 'minion' on it, whatever that meant, and he was thankful that he had followed John's advice and actually purchased a couple of pairs of linen shorts, as the heat was simply ridiculous. It was far too hot to walk the five minutes to the park, so he put on Rosie's favourite movie and tried to think of what to do with them for the next five hours. How did teachers do it?

Drawing kept them entertained for an hour.

Snack comprised of a tea party which somehow turned into gossip(who knew it started so early in girls?) which then turned into an argument over who a certain Colin in the playgroup was in love with at the moment. Sherlock wished that John was there to referee, but he cleared his throat and suggested hesitantly, "how about a game of hide and seek?"

"Hide and seek?" Delilah asked.

"Hide and seek?" Evie and Celia chimed in together, as Sherlock had learned quite quickly that they always chimed in on everything.

"Yes. I myself have never played, perhaps one of you -"

Grace piped up, "one person counts to twenty, and when you are done you say, 'Ready or not, here I come!' and the rest of us hide before you get to twenty. Rosie's Da, why don't you seek first. You have to cover your eyes, no peeking, and then we try to hide so you can't find us, and the last person to be found wins."

"Very well. Shall we begin now?"

"YES!" The girls jumped up from the table and waited for him to cover his eyes.

"No peeking, Da!" Rosie whispered loudly.

"1...2...3..." He could hear the flurry of feet and giggles of the girls as they ran through the flat. "4...5...6..." He thought back to his own childhood, back to the parts he could remember clearly any way, and recalled a lonely existence, and he was happy that Rosie had these girls in her life. Perhaps she would remember this day as one she recalled fondly, perhaps not. "18... 19... 20... Ready or not here I come!"

He stood quietly for a moment and tried to focus on any new sounds in the flat, then sighed and tried to think as a child would. Just play. Don't think. Just play. Don't think. He searched through the kitchen with no success. Behind the curtains, nope. Bedroom. No. Wardrobe... it was harder than he thought and he wondered that six girls could remain so quiet for so long. Then he heard the faintest giggle from the bathroom and he grinned as he pulled back the shower curtain to find six smiling faces.

"You found us Da!" Rosie hopped up from her hiding place and threw her arms around him. "Now, we all get to find you."

"Now, that doesn't seem quite fair, six against one."

"Pleeease?" A chorus rose from the girls and he finally relented.

"Oh, very well. Now, no peeking..." He watched as they all placed their hands over their eyes and Rosie began to count.

"1. 2. 3. Da. Go hide! 4. 5. 6. 7...."

Sherlock bit his lip and tried to think of where he could fit. 

"8. 9. 10. Hurry up, Da!! 11. 12. 13. 14..."

Couch. He could pull the throw over himself and essentially disappear. Clever. Is it clever? It's just a game. Stop thinking. Couch. Go. He slipped his shoes off and silently moved to the couch and spread the throw over himself.

"15. 16. 17. 18. 19. TWENTY!" The girls all screamed, opened their eyes and spun around.

"Where did he go, Rosie?"

"Dunno." Rosie stopped and waited in silence for a moment, then searched the room for any minute changes, froze and put a finger to her lips and pointed at the couch. "5... 4... 3... 2...1..."

"Ahhhhhhchhhhhhooooooo!!"

Sherlock groaned as six small girls landed on him. "We found you!!!!" They shrieked. "Again. Again. Again!!!"

 

John crept into their bedroom and stood next to their bed, astonished to see Sherlock sound asleep. He dropped his bag and undressed, then climbed into bed and draped his arm over Sherlock's hip. The slight movement brought Sherlock back to full awareness and he rolled over to face him. "Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you."

"You weren't supposed to be home until tomorrow night."

"I missed you and Rosie too much. No. Not too much. Just enough to know I needed to be home."

"I missed you too. Did you ever play hide and seek as a kid?"

"Of course."

"Today was my first time. With Ro and five of her closest friends."

John's jaw dropped and he closed his eyes tightly. "That was today. Oh, Sherlock. I'm so sorry, love."

"No, it was quite an education. And it's quite something to be found. I hadn't understood what that really meant until today, and then I realised you were the first one to find me, and you keep finding me over and over again, especially on those days when I want to do nothing but hide from the world, you always manage to find me."

"And I always will." John kissed him tenderly and laid his head over his heart. "It's late, and Rosie will be up in a few hours."

Sherlock nodded, wrapped his arms around John and pressed a kiss to his hair, and within minutes was sound asleep once more.


End file.
